Personalization company Dynamic Yield raises $22M and adds Baidu as an investor

Dynamic Yield, a company offering tools to help online businesses deliver personalized experiences, has raised $22 million in series C funding.

CEO Liad Agmon told me that he started Dynamic Yield (in 2011) because even existing personalization tools tended to be “point solutions for solving tactical problems.”

With Dynamic Yield, on the other hand, Agmon wanted to deliver a full, unified set of tools covering everything from A/B testing to messaging to personalized product recommendations, and to create “a 360-degree view of the customer” that pulls data from —and personalizes — mobile apps, mobile web, email and online advertising.

Personalizing seemingly small things can increase revenue, Agmon said. For example, he showed me an e-commerce website where simply swapping the header image based on a visitor’s gender improved sales — as he put it, “It’s like going on a first date. The first impression counts for a lot.”

Dynamic Yield says it has customers in e-commerce, media, gaming, travel and more — customers include Under Armour, Rolling Stone, Sephora and the CW. It also says its technology has been used to deliver a personalized experience to more than 500 million people.

The company has now raised more than $36 million in funding. The new round was led by Vertex and ClalTech, with participation from new investors Baidu and Global Founders Capital, as well as previous backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker LLP and Innovation Endeavors. Vertex’s Aviad Ariel and Claltech’s Daniel Shinar are joining the Dynamic Yield board of directors.

Baidu is probably the most interesting addition to the investor list. Agmon said this deepens Dynamic Yield’s existing relationship with the Chinese search giant — after all, online advertising is more effective when it points users to a personalized web experience.

“Today, web, mobile and email customization are must-have tools in a marketer’s arsenal,” said Alex Cheng, vice president and general manager of Baidu USA, in the funding release. “While traffic acquisition is critical, customers interact with brands across multiple interfaces as they research before they buy. Hence, ROI becomes increasingly dependent on seamless, comprehensive web and mobile customer experiences. We were deeply impressed by the technology DynamicYield has built and believe that any advertiser will benefit from leveraging its platform.”